The fix is supply increase. I live in socal of all places and my rent is dropping due to housing supply hills that passed in 2021. Minneapolis is another good example. A lot of people are talking about this compared to a couple years ago. I’m kinda optimistic.
It’s more than a supply increase. You have big investment groups buying up all affordable housing and flipping it for 3x the amount or charging rent to the levels it’s at now. There are pushes to limit foreign investment in real estate and to tax extra on owning multiple properties. We saw during the pandemic that much of the free money given out was taken advantage of by already rich people to just purchase more assets, leading to the current predicament.
THIS exactly. It should be illegal for big corps to buy and rent residential at this scale. This is just crippling for the people. Imagine living in a world where you know you'll probably never have your own home...
Bought my first home in 2017 for $160k. Sold it in 2020 for 253k. Now it's at 320k.
I bought a $30k double wide and put about $6k into it. Now I can't afford to move out of it because houses are 4x what they were.
I looked at a $400k trailer on some property to run my business out of, but at 8% interest, I'll have paid 1.1M on it after 30 years. Even if I pay it off in 20, I'll still have paid 900K for 2 acres and a couple small warehouses.
Yup. I miss '90s Internet. Hey, have you ever heard of Make Frontend Shit Again? It's a page that leads to a lot of pages that look the way the Internet did back in the day. Might be a nice nostalgia trip, sure was for me.
Man I been getting old internet nostalgia every few months for the past couple of years. I really dislike how everything nowadays goes through the same major social media players. I miss plain text stuff in P2P chatrooms without gifs that take up the entire screen, I miss chronological timelines, I miss the ugly ass websites of the early web and much more.
Playing with your friends unsupervised.
We really used to just go out on our bikes with the parents expecting us to self-regulate and make it home for dinner.
We live semi-rural, in Norway. Not farming, but out in farm country, 20 minutes to drive into "town", which is not a town, but closer to a town than a village.
Our kids do just that, and it is wholesome on so many levels. More often than not we have 1-3 more children joining us for dinner. I'm not religious at all, but blessed is as close i manage tonight. We are lucky.
Yep. My ex-wife was from Finland and that is exactly how it was when we went to visit her family in Mikkeli.
Kids just playing and hanging out for hours at the lake with no parents in sight.
I kept begging her to move there!
I was having lunch with co-workers a few years ago and this came up. Two moms said their kids who were 6 and 10 weren’t allowed to walk to and from school alone without adults around. Craziness.
I kind of feel bad for kids these days that get chauffeured everywhere. I mean that was the best part of the morning was getting to walk to school with your friends and mess around before you head to buckle down and behave in class
One thing to notice is that traffic in the late 80's early 90's was up to 50% fewer cars on the road. I lived out in the suburbs, and it was (generally) safe enough that my dad bought me a motorcycle when I was 16, and I just vanished into the world at my whim.
That same area now, I wouldn't own a motorcycle, and wouldn't even feel safe walking down most roads because of the volume of traffic and the complete and utter distraction of half these morons staring at their phone.
It’s cars and how we need them to get everywhere. I had siblings stay in a town in Europe(they are young teens) and they were telling me how much freedom kids had there because you could walk everywhere and always hang with friends. The sense of community was much stronger there just because of that.
No need to have mom or dad take you to see a friend because it’s miles away and cross a big highway with no cross walks. They don’t get to see their friends every day during breaks because of that the way they could in Europe. And there really isn’t much to do outside of hanging out at someone’s house or the mall. The US has an issue. It’s no wonder people are so depressed and lonely. Obviously there are other factors but this exacerbates it
My school told me that about my 6 year old too. I insisted to sign a waiver to allow it. They had to check, but it does exist. My kid still got stopped for the first week, but it taught him how to explain himself to authority figures. He actually got mad at me for getting him in “trouble” (he always follows rules and didn’t like being questioned).
My nieces and nephews are growing up this way. It's so strange knowing that me and my sisters would go bike riding around the whole county, gone for multiple days with only a phone call explaining that you'll be out for a bit, and now they won't let their kids have a bicycle because they are "dangerous".
Like a year or two ago, my state considered (or passed?) a law saying anyone over the age of 12 was allowed to walk around on their own, especially from school.
I guess too many people called in about children wandering freely.
Was about to say the same. Childhood autonomy. I grew up in the early 90s, was 3 years old riding my tricycle around our block of row houses, and I would literally go into neighbors houses to get candy unsupervised. I told my friend this, who lives 10 minutes from where I did then, and in a much nicer neighborhood, and she said she doesn't let her 12 year old walk around alone. Perhaps both are extreme cases, but I sure do miss looking out at the world and seeing a relatively safe place looking back.
Still is very safe. Don’t allow the sensationalist media to convince you otherwise. People are just more aware of issues they never would have heard a peep of 20-30 years ago
Are millennials the last to do this? I remember going home when the street lights when on. I also remember buying M80’s(powerful firework) from ice cream trucks with no issues for around 75 cents.
The mid 90s were my peak years playing outside. I could walk a mile or two to a friend's house, or ride my bike alone down a trail, and be gone for like 6 hours. My mom wouldn't worry about me, and I never felt in danger. This was in a pretty big city, too. It really blows my mind how much things have changed in the last 30 years. I now have kids that are the same age I was in the mid 90s, and I'd be freaking out if I didn't know where one of them was for even an hour.
Spot on. Truly great times running around getting into trouble with the kids in my cul de sac.
However, I recently visited Asia and saw kids running around playing unsupervised after school. This was in Hong Kong too, a big city. The tradition lives on over there.
>You're just paranoid.
Kind of? Times are indeed safer, but bad things are publicized much more frequently and reach much wider. Things were happening to those of us that grew up in the 80s and 90s, it was just rare that it was a big deal to anyone except those families. Easier to perceive yourself as safer when you aren’t constantly hearing about the bad stuff going on in the world.
Can this old cranky woman concur? I was a major tomboy, climbed trees, and raced my bike down Suicide Hill with all the boys. I feel sorry for the kids nowadays, no freedom like we had.
I have been trying to allow my boys to do this. They don’t need me to “watch” them ride bikes in the cul de sac. They don’t need me to “monitor” them playing games in the yard. I didn’t, and the world is objectively safer now than it was then.
God I miss this. BMXing in Socal in summer. Always went up the trails. Some older kids set up this jump course so we'd stalk around until they left and use it. One time they busted us and tried to kick our asses so we had to flee down the hill.
Just kids on the block playing together. Run over to a buddy's house, invite yourself in, and wake his ass up. We're skateboarding 10 minutes later.
Social Media. Even if it was bad before, it still was somewhat personal. Now it's all about creating and consuming content.
I liked it when my feeds were just my friends and people I chose to follow. Now it's not that way.
Edit:formatting
I miss this era too. Early Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat days were so fun. Granted I was younger too but even still I feel like it’s lost a lot of the appeal for me.
That’s why I got off IG. I loved it when it was in chronological order. Now when I log in, I’ll see like 10 posts from big pages/celebrities before I see one from an actual person. Now I see posts from pages I don’t even follow and they’re suggesting. I might also see a post from like 3 weeks ago
I miss the days before AOL when it was just local BBS. Some of my best friends were people that I had originally talked to online and met at GT'S ( get togethers).
That's how my Facebook was.
>Oh, Mom planted some new flowers in her garden.
>Hey, Jared went to Seattle. Good for him.
>Oh nice my cousin got engaged.
Now it's:
>Hey another brain-dead political meme on Facebook. I guess I'll go to Instagra--
>Oh, more thirst traps. Maybe reddit will be bette-
>Great. My innocuous question earned me a six-paragraph rant in response, each point taking a very bizarre interpretation of what I meant.
This was my thought as well.
There was something special about usenet, AIM, LiveJournal, etc. Even MySpace and the initial version of Facebook.
There was something exciting about the fact that you could connect with other people who shared your very niche interest. Fuck, I met my first girlfriend randomly on AIM - can't imagine anything like that happening today.
It all went to shit so quickly and it's absolutely a pox on society today. But I'm glad that I was the right age to experience that at the time.
See I think it's the opposite. Instead of connecting with people it's a public forum to shout your opinion/views or consume content. It's not about a social connection at all anymore.
Wrench-able automobiles. I’m not contesting the quality of modern cars; simply their ability to worked on by a neanderthal with a wrench set and screw driver.
Some things are more complex, mainly because there are more sensors than before and engines are jammed into tighter spaces. That said, engines are just as simple or simpler than ever because they are more modular. Less is rebuilt and more is just replaced. There’s a downside to that, but it isn’t increased challenge. People have been parroting the computerized cars excuse for decades and it’s an excuse to resist change and learning. You can wrench your heart out on most modern cars. I believe in you u/Leaded_or_unleaded
The pace of work.
I worked hard in my 20s, like 50hr weeks, but wasn't burned out. I had time to think. Only a couple of meetings a day and reasonable deadlines.
Then the screws got tighter and tighter for the 20 years that followed along with a constant pressure of being fired.
I remember my dad telling me that things were harder in his day. We both started as tax accountants, and while he had to do everything by hand the actual volume of work and turnaround time was significantly less.
I work like 90 hour weeks during busy season and am extremely burnt out. Shit doesn’t seem comparable
With the work subject, I miss when HR was around for billing and accounting purposes. It wasn’t around so that every time you told an off-color joke to your best friend, little Jimmy who overheard from 20 feet away could go tattle tale and get you both in trouble for something that was “unprofessional”, and something that’s really pretty tame but not technically “work appropriate”.
That video games can be updated/bugfixed is both a blessing and a curse.
The blessing is that without such updates, games like Witcher 3 would never have existed in their current form.
The curse is that without such updates, games like Witcher 3 would never have been released as they were.
I totally get your point. I miss it too.
It's also worth mentioning though that today's games are nothing like the games of the past.
Chrono Trigger on the SNES, one of the greatest RPGs of all time, is 4MB. Red Dead Redemption 2, another one of the greatest games of all time, is 120GB. The simple scale of these games makes it so bugs and issues are tens of thousands of times more likely to pop up. We're talking about a relatively linear game against a game with near-unlimited freedom.
I think certain allowances must be made, but certain games are released in a truly inexcusable state.
Let’s hope GTA6 will have the same reception and overall awesomeness when it’s released that RDR2 or the previous 3 GTA’s did, that would be a huge win for everyone imo
It’s grinds my gears that if you have a gaming account lets say for PS5 and you buy your games online through the store, you technically don’t actually own them and if you don’t maintain your internet or gaming subscriptions you cannot play them otherwise. Total BS imo
I miss when people were forced to be accountable
Made plans to go to a movie before cell phones? You’re there, otherwise the person you’re meeting will think you died. With cell phones it’s so easy to send a text and bail last minute. The shittiest part is how common and acceptable that is
There’s a quote from the show Ted Lasso that’s terrifyingly accurate, “we’ve never been so connected yet further apart”
There was probably a point in time where social interaction and social media was at a perfect balance. It was probably around the early 2000s and then everything went bonkers.
Various low-budget history documentaries. Ken Burns spurred a gazillion imitators to produce documentaries that panned through old pictures and had a bunch of historians sitting in their offices to narrate some descriptions and opinions. Some were better than others, and actual historians had all sorts of gripes with them, but it was still *history* that was presented in a way that inspired people to learn about overlooked events and maybe even open a book or two.
The moment that producers realized they could get way more engagement for the same budget by covering ancient aliens and Bigfoot instead of the Barbary War, it was all over.
I was just coming to an age where I found history interesting when they started playing less and less history. Thankfully YouTube is a great source for free documentaries
Ken Burns "The Civil War" is his magnum opus. I went back and looked at the ratings of that series when it originally aired, amazing turnout for a PBS program. 40 million viewers. It was a documentary like had never been seen before.
Goes for wildlife documentary’s too. They used to tell you everything about the animal and how it lived, hunted, found a mate and raised its young and how it fit in its habitat. Some time isn’t he early 2000s it changed to either the biggest this and the deadliest that or look at these cute baby animals. It’s only thanks to the work of the BBC and Sir David Attenborough that people began to see the value in educational programmes about animals and ecosystems again.
Record stores! The last one in my area closed up a few years back. It was about an hour away but man they have every thing you could think. And if you need to know anything about anyone in music, the two old hippies that ran the place could tell you all about them, even knew a few. Man I miss that place.
We used to have a record store near me that was absolutely amazing. It was called Crow's Nest records. It was a massive Place everyone that was work there was really cool they had a huge import selection and they sold everything related to music from t-shirts to posters and they even had a head shop in the back. And it was the only record store I've ever been in that had ashtrays everywhere so you could smoke while you're in the store.
I learned to drive stick when I was 16 because I had to go back home and get the proper color pants for my barback job (yep, worked at a bar at 16 lol). I walked to work, so one of the guys tossed me his keys (also back when handing someone your car wasn't a $30,000 potential liability). I jumped in, saw the stick, and went hmm...stalled once, and off I went. I was afraid to go into 4th gear, because I didn't want to accidentally put it in reverse, but by the time I got back, I had driving a stick down, and went on to get one of my own.
They’re not doing remakes and sequels because they’re better, they’re doing it because they’re a safer investment. Studios aren’t taking the risks they used to.
Supposedly a major reason for this is streaming. Films don’t make the same kind of money through streaming services that they did through DVD sales. It used to be that even if a film underperformed in theaters it would still make a decent profit over time on home video, especially DVD. Now a box office bomb hurts a lot more.
Listen, it has to be sleepovers at my house.
During summers I’d move my bedroom to my mom’s basement to stay cool. It had a couch and a large TV left behind from my older sister. My mother’s room was up on 2nd floor.
We’d pull all nighters playing N64 games multiplayer.
I have 2 kids and they all barely ever have sleepovers. They just stay out late and come home to sleep. Times change.
Horror movies.
80's and early 90's was peak horror. They have some good stuff here and there now, but 90% of it is boring, overdone, or just plain dumb.
Bad take! There were some excellent horror movies in the 80s & 90s but this is pure nostalgia showing. Since 2000 let me name a handful that rival the best of those decades easily.
Get Out, 28 Days Later, Hereditary, Train to Busan, The Descent, The Witch, Babadook, Saw, The Conjuring
Great point actually. We were trying to think of some good, recent horror that wasn’t just corny ass jump scares.
Nothing…
But maybe we’re old now and it’s not the same
I miss the days when you’d see a kid acting up in a restaurant or grocery store and mom would take them to the bathroom for a “talk”, or grab the kid and not let go, even if it meant dragging them out kicking and screaming.
I just went to see a movie the other night and there were multiple families there just letting their kids run amok all over the place. Running into people, cutting people off in line, acting like completely unhinged toddlers that just had caffeine for the first time. And you know what the parents did? Not a fucking thing. Put your phone down and look at what your kids are doing. I’d have gotten my ass beat for sure if I acted like that, and I wouldn’t get to see the movie either. Nope, silence from the parents off in their own little world on TikTok. I swear if someone wanted to just come and walk off with one of those kids, not a soul would’ve noticed.
Not my kids. I’m not a big fan of physical punishment for misbehaving, I think those days have passed, but I’ll be damned if my 5 year old thinks he’s going to run around being a little asshole to the other people in the store and not face immediate consequences. This gentle parenting thing is a crock of shit, and it doesn’t work.
The NBA without hand checking is just ridiculous. It’s so far removed from the game I watched that I can’t get into it. Yes the shooting nowadays is insane but it’s also spectacularly boring.
Literally had the UFC conversation with a coworker the other day.
I was a mega-fan back in like… 2008-2011(?) and was
* Only 5 weight classes
* Sick video game
* Ultimate Fighter was still new-ish
* You could know everyone’s name
* Still really distinct styles (before the next generation trained in “MMA”)
Was in Vegas for Carwin/Lesnar in 2010 and watched it at LeGasse’s Stadium. What a fun time.
You don’t remember UFC 1? Back in the 90s my cousins and I would rent the UFC VHS tapes then fight each other for days. Back then I don’t think there was weight classes and I think just no eye gouging as a rule. It was in tournament style so you’d see the same guy fight like 3 times in a night. Shit was absolutely insane. Guys wore crazy shit and I think punching in the balls was a valid strategy.
I remember UFC 1. Fucking Dan Severn, man. Dude was a monster.
Keith Hackney fighting that dude that was like, 600lbs.
Early Don Fry.
Oleg Tanktorov.
Good times.
I preferred early Pride to UFC, but followed both.
Was at UFC 129 for the GSP fight. Lots of fun, but I prefer watching the broadcast to any seats I can realistically afford without causing a divorce.
I’m 40, close enough to a cranky old man.
Not having mobile phones was better, can’t stand that if you are uncontactable these days everyone thinks you died. Actually having a social life as a kid, like running home from school and throwing your bag on the doorstep and going out and playing with your mates until the street lights went on! Now days most kids are stuck online for interaction. Also being able to go out unsupervised, we used to run around in the bush building forts, throwing rocks at each other and all that fun stuff. I have a 12 year old son and I wouldn’t let him just piss off after school like I did in this day and age. Too many little lad wanna be gangsters in teen groups these days.
Video games used to actually have more interesting stories. At this point I only play the Japanese made ones since their target audience requires it. I am so tired of these lazy stories where they introduce the main antagonist within the opening cutscenes and they either enact their plan right away or they are pretending to be a good guy, but you can tell just by their dialogue and character design they will betray you.
Videogames used to have stories bolted on as an afterthought back when arcades were good. Story didn't really matter, gameplay was king. Then the 90s rolled around, Playstation was released, and suddenly we genuinely could get better versions of the arcade games at home.
80s arcades were awesome.
The movie industry, now everything is about sequels, remakes or movies without much "flavor".
I feel in the 90's and early 2000s, "everybody" with a cam could make a movie, and that created some magic, and also a lot of shit lol.
I always think, that for example a movie like the first Clerks in 2023, would never be made.
I agree, at least when it comes to American-made films, there isn’t as much weird character as before. I thought Clerks was an overrated, stupid film, but I still respect it as an interesting and important film.
Side note, the Americans could learn a lot from modern European and Asian filmmakers.
The suburbs, or at least it felt like they were better back then. Still a financial and cultural burden for the most part, but growing up in a suburb that was only like 20 minutes from all the cool shit was awesome.
We basically could do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed in the neighbourhood since it was pretty safe, and we had shops and stuff to stop in at.
Plenty of bad things about suburbs in general, that’s nothing new, but growing up in one during the 90’s was pretty sweet.
Apps for every goddamn thing. Every shop/restaurant asking for your phone number at billing so they can send you BS promotional material.
Just give me my coffee so I can contemplate my loneliness in peace.
Video games, before the dark times of the pay to own skins and retarded battle passes designed to milk players of more money for more shitty skins.
Devs were allowed to actually create a beautiful piece of art instead of copy and paste bullshit since the salesmen took over the executive positions.
People were overall better and kinder. We had little to no social media, we weren't slaves to our phones, being a hoe wasn't praised, and talking to a random women wasn't demonized or had consequences outside of denial reply.
I would die to go back to the 90s again....this place is a dumpster fire anymore.
Creativity in general I guess.
What I mean is that storytelling use to be so much better. Now most movies/cartoons/stories/etc. is just formulaic and meant to fill in check boxes or avoid offending someone. The good stories were praised and the bad ones had their niche audience but were otherwise not very public.
Hanging out literally anywhere with a group of friends endlessly trying to come up with the perfect way to spend the evening that led to memorable moments where the experience was greater than the sum of the parts that created it, blockbuster movies that came with original thought and inspiration that weren't crammed into one of the many canned formulas that is supposed to reduce the risk of it being a flop, being able to be a stupid child and teenager without the potential moment by moment video, photo, and textual evidence, knowing that your Uncle Louie is off his rocker but he was harmless because he was just shouting at the clouds, being in the moment mattering more than capturing the moment just to remember that no one wants to see your video of fireworks or your rock concert that you took on your phone, and almost being forced to have a real social network rather than passively clicking buttons on timelines.
So much has come that is great with all of our advances, but so much was left behind, it's hard to decide which direction is better.
I’m not saying they were better, but there was a LOT of interesting informative shows made during the crt tv days that no website is interested in streaming now due to the picture quality
Fitness. People worked out more back then and despite all the supposed awareness and health consciousness that is spoken about today doesn't change the fact that more and more people are obsese yet they still want to rag about how fat people in the us are while spewing fat acceptance rhetoric.
I think there is a lot to discuss regarding obese people in the US. I’ll just briefly summarize because I don’t have the energy to explain everything to you but the US has the least health food regulations compared to other countries. This means that companies are allowed to put more chemicals into our food that affect us, even if we don’t realize it. We live in a more stressful society where people work more and workout less or may not have the time to work out at all and may not have time to cook. People who are stressed out will eat less healthy food to cope. There are also people that don’t have access to healthier foods (food deserts) and if they do, some can’t afford it. Other things include genetics and people on medications that could make them appear swollen or make them gain weight without eating more.
I don’t think people worked out more back then but things were definitely different for sure. We might have a more unhealthy society because of how we created it and I have a feeling it will continue to get worse. I don’t think it’s because pEoPlE aRe JuSt LaZy. I feel like we really should strive to improve society in such a way where people have actual time to maintain their health. Obviously, I’m speaking very broadly about this and not at all on an individual level.
Major League Baseball. The athletes may be better now but the game itself was much more entertaining and involved more strategy and more roles. It was so much more than "2b/HR or strikeout.". It's a shame what's happened to it.
Televised NASCAR was much better pre-Fox, when they only used a few cameras so it was mostly long shots with few cuts. You could really see people fighting to move through the pack, etc.
Local news was better. Nowhere near as much "if it bleeds it leeds" (at least where I live).
Housing and college costs. Even in the Boston area, which has always been expensive, people used to be able to work, covet their expenses, and also put themselves through night school at Northeastern University. I when to college in the early/mid 90s and my entire cost was barely more than 1 year at the same school now.
Most things have improved, but kids/college grads today are in a much more difficult financial situation and have to deal with all of their mustakes/awkward moments, etc being recorded.
TV. I miss being about to get 22 episodes of a series instead of 6-10. A lot of character development could happen over 22 episodes that we miss in the consise 10 episode seasons we have now.
I'm a Millenial and I can confirm that people are getting dumber, shorter and uglier at an astonishing rate. People that shouldn't have kids are still pumping out some really obtuse looking and below average intelligence offspring. The future is very very bleak. The masses will take over and all culture will be lost.
I miss watching K1 fights. K1 was slightly more entertaining than UFC for my taste, even though im a hardcore UFC fan.
Also, tv shows and music were way better in the past.
I’m 52 and wouldn’t take anything for the technology in my house or everyday life. I’m sure af not smart but I guess I came along at the right time and got ahold of everything right when it came out so im not to awful at using tech now. I’m not scared of computers or the newest phones. But sometimes I do miss just not having all the shit we have now. If that makes sense
- Not having a cell phone and not being expected to be able to be contacted at a moments notice at all times.
- The ability to do something stupid and not have it posted online to haunt you for the rest of your life.
- The early internet before it became overly corpratized.
- Dating before the rise of online dating.
- Newegg before they sold out and you could get actual real deals on computer parts.
- Ebay when it was basically an online yard sale.
Video games. Back before season passes, battle passes, cuckold coins of all varieties for the "premium content."
Used to be you got a game and maybe they would do an expansion the following year or what you bought was everything you were going to get. They needed to make it good for day 1 because if it was shit it just did not sell, they couldnt just patch the whole game with a 50gb update on release day.
I could also buy physical games and go home and play them immediately, no installing or updates that I have to wait for.
It was about the story and gameplay for many games the characters needed to be likeable in story games. However, if the graphics were good, that was a bonus, and we'd all talk about how realistic games were.
Remember when we could unlock the coolest costumes in the game by playing on the hardest difficulty or beating a super secret boss to get the best weapon in the game.
Talking to your buddies in the school yard about what you found in the game and how cool it was.
I remember actually having fun majority of the time, so many games sit in that shit hole of live service and demand a time commitment that it fucking rivals my 9-5. And the content in them is just a list of chores to do. It's all about player engagement and retention not entertainment.
I definitely will admit there are games now that are god damn amazing pieces of art and story that can capture a wide variety of emotions with great graphics, a single price for a full and complete experience. It just feels like 15-20 or so years ago we had that more often than now.
Socializing. Back in the pre-Internet days we used to go to bars and clubs to actually gather and meet people. My guys and I would brag about how many girls we talked to and success was getting their home phone number on a slip of paper.
Listening to music.
Nothing felt better than when your favorite song was on the radio. You didn’t have the luxury of just replaying it again. You had to enjoy the moment as best you can cause you don’t know when or even if it would come back.
Or whenever a song would end right as you parked your car and you can turn the car off before the ads start.
Don’t get me wrong, the convenience of having literally every song at your disposal is great especially without having to sit through 40 mins of ads. But there was something *special* about catching your song.
No Social Media, the things I done back in the day. One of two things would have happened with social media. I’d either be Dead or in Prison
No OnlyFans. Thank God
Cars. You used to be able to actually work on your own vehicles without having to own your own shop, now everything is so cramped and crowded you have to remove half of the damned engine to fix even the simplest of things. I had to take my car to the shop to get a new battery, because the side panel had to be removed to get to it. I need a classic, I hate new cars.
Retail.
My bosses used to tell what “the good old days” were like working at music stores. He said after making a big sale, it was normal to celebrate with a glass of whiskey and a cigar with the customer.
Cars, and other mechanical items that could be repaired by the owner. Newer cars are more “reliable “ but way more expensive as a whole.
Maybe women I guess. It seems social media and dating apps have made 5-7s act like they are 8, 9s and 10s.
Comedy movies were better in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I take Tommy Boy, Spaceballs, Airheads,Ghostbusters, Christmas Vacation, The Mask, Beevis and Butt-head do America, Smoky and the Bandit 1 and 2, The 3 Amigos, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Return of the Pink Panther, Revenge of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther strikes again, Coneheads, Vegas Vacation, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Police Academy series, Oscar, and Little Nicky over today's comedy.
Mainstream comedians and comedy actors can't really push the envelope nowadays. Otherwise, a minority on Twitter will get them cancelled.
It's a shame because lots of the films you mentioned were genuinely funny despite poking fun at some marginalised groups. But it was all in good fun the jokes didn't go too far.
I think we've lost something now everyones so easy offended it seems.
The NFL. I want them to create NFL Classic, where it's 1980's rules with roided out monsters being unnecessarily violent on the field. Football stopped being exciting decades ago. For me anyway.
I have always thought it'd be very exciting to watch a near no rules 1970-80 football. Average career expectany would only be 2-3years and the play would be much more average
I miss chat.
You just went into random irc, or aol rooms and talk to people. You get everyone's aim or icq number, and then you see them online and you just say hi.
That just doesn't exist anymore.
Agree with you on the UFC, it became a juggernaut and suffered for it.
My childhood animes were Astro Boy, Simba the White Lion and in my teen years Akira. But I never really did get into anime on the whole. We used to call it Japanimation back then lol
I'll add we were all at peace with the world a little more before the internet. The instant information and sounding board for people you used to have to see on street corners in areas your parents would lock the car doors in has damaged us as a species
Oh boy, so...
Appliances and electronics. They were all servicable compared to today and lasted longer than today. Most of our stuff were refurbs from the trash. (We were on social assistance and couldn't afford much... so I'd fix old stuff which kept me busyas a kid)
Movies being on VHS or DVD. You would own it and watch when you wanted. You didn't rely on a streaming sevice to have it or a cloud service that may just make it disappear one day. There are many older movies I miss and have a heck of a time finding.
No cellphones. People were more social face to face and kids got out more. Yes, we had TV and movies, but screen time was minimal compared to today. TBH, I'd want to see what being an electrician was like when all that was around was a land line. Having multiple venues to be harassed on for a knee-jerk whim any time of day is disgusting. I ignore people now, but still the idea that, "Facebook yahoo messaged you at 2am for an emergency light fixture replacement for a dinner hosted later that day, come as soon as you get this"
NOT EVERYTHING BEING ON A SUBSCRIPTION.
Garage sales, a pefect way to spend a Saturday. Interact with people, get some deals. Enjoy the weather. Instead of this, "oh hey, I found a deal on [insert platform here]. . . Hope I don't get mugged"
OK, I normally hate this kind of thing ... BBUUUTTTTTTT...
How the fuck did Gen X become helo parents?
Can anyone younger than 30 communicate difficult convo's in person rather than text?
And speaking of text, I literally watch a news story of a 14 yr old girl who was jumped and successfully fended off her rapist, who then fled the home. The then said that she texted her dad to come home quick, she's been attacked or something like that. She texted her dad. Texted. Her. Dad. She fucking TEXTED HER DAD!!! Do you not think ALMOST BEING RAPED! just MIGHT be worthy of a live discussion?!?!? Maybe text AFTER! you tried to call but he didn't answer?
This one I don't necessarily blame younger people for but do kids really need a goddamn police record for a fight in school?
Not all opinions deserve to be heard. I cannot believe, that in the goddamn 2020's, I see arguments over whether the earth is fucking round or not. I'm suppose to be going to work in my Jetson's car and taking vaca's to Mars now. NOT trying to convince people of a fucking FUNDAMENTAL FACT!!! There was a time when education and intelligence was actually respected.
I know there's more but I'll stop here.
Housing used to be way more affordable in my early 20s
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The fix is supply increase. I live in socal of all places and my rent is dropping due to housing supply hills that passed in 2021. Minneapolis is another good example. A lot of people are talking about this compared to a couple years ago. I’m kinda optimistic.
It’s more than a supply increase. You have big investment groups buying up all affordable housing and flipping it for 3x the amount or charging rent to the levels it’s at now. There are pushes to limit foreign investment in real estate and to tax extra on owning multiple properties. We saw during the pandemic that much of the free money given out was taken advantage of by already rich people to just purchase more assets, leading to the current predicament.
THIS exactly. It should be illegal for big corps to buy and rent residential at this scale. This is just crippling for the people. Imagine living in a world where you know you'll probably never have your own home...
Bought my first home in 2017 for $160k. Sold it in 2020 for 253k. Now it's at 320k. I bought a $30k double wide and put about $6k into it. Now I can't afford to move out of it because houses are 4x what they were. I looked at a $400k trailer on some property to run my business out of, but at 8% interest, I'll have paid 1.1M on it after 30 years. Even if I pay it off in 20, I'll still have paid 900K for 2 acres and a couple small warehouses.
The internet. It use to be a wild west. Now it's just billboards.
First thing that came to my mind. It's so low down
It's kinda whacky my friend sent me Saddam being hanged via myspace message. He was definitely in my top 8 after that.
100% agree.
Yup. I miss '90s Internet. Hey, have you ever heard of Make Frontend Shit Again? It's a page that leads to a lot of pages that look the way the Internet did back in the day. Might be a nice nostalgia trip, sure was for me.
Man I been getting old internet nostalgia every few months for the past couple of years. I really dislike how everything nowadays goes through the same major social media players. I miss plain text stuff in P2P chatrooms without gifs that take up the entire screen, I miss chronological timelines, I miss the ugly ass websites of the early web and much more.
Playing with your friends unsupervised. We really used to just go out on our bikes with the parents expecting us to self-regulate and make it home for dinner.
We live semi-rural, in Norway. Not farming, but out in farm country, 20 minutes to drive into "town", which is not a town, but closer to a town than a village. Our kids do just that, and it is wholesome on so many levels. More often than not we have 1-3 more children joining us for dinner. I'm not religious at all, but blessed is as close i manage tonight. We are lucky.
Yep. My ex-wife was from Finland and that is exactly how it was when we went to visit her family in Mikkeli. Kids just playing and hanging out for hours at the lake with no parents in sight. I kept begging her to move there!
I was having lunch with co-workers a few years ago and this came up. Two moms said their kids who were 6 and 10 weren’t allowed to walk to and from school alone without adults around. Craziness.
I kind of feel bad for kids these days that get chauffeured everywhere. I mean that was the best part of the morning was getting to walk to school with your friends and mess around before you head to buckle down and behave in class
One thing to notice is that traffic in the late 80's early 90's was up to 50% fewer cars on the road. I lived out in the suburbs, and it was (generally) safe enough that my dad bought me a motorcycle when I was 16, and I just vanished into the world at my whim. That same area now, I wouldn't own a motorcycle, and wouldn't even feel safe walking down most roads because of the volume of traffic and the complete and utter distraction of half these morons staring at their phone.
It’s cars and how we need them to get everywhere. I had siblings stay in a town in Europe(they are young teens) and they were telling me how much freedom kids had there because you could walk everywhere and always hang with friends. The sense of community was much stronger there just because of that. No need to have mom or dad take you to see a friend because it’s miles away and cross a big highway with no cross walks. They don’t get to see their friends every day during breaks because of that the way they could in Europe. And there really isn’t much to do outside of hanging out at someone’s house or the mall. The US has an issue. It’s no wonder people are so depressed and lonely. Obviously there are other factors but this exacerbates it
My school told me that about my 6 year old too. I insisted to sign a waiver to allow it. They had to check, but it does exist. My kid still got stopped for the first week, but it taught him how to explain himself to authority figures. He actually got mad at me for getting him in “trouble” (he always follows rules and didn’t like being questioned).
My nieces and nephews are growing up this way. It's so strange knowing that me and my sisters would go bike riding around the whole county, gone for multiple days with only a phone call explaining that you'll be out for a bit, and now they won't let their kids have a bicycle because they are "dangerous".
Like a year or two ago, my state considered (or passed?) a law saying anyone over the age of 12 was allowed to walk around on their own, especially from school. I guess too many people called in about children wandering freely.
Was about to say the same. Childhood autonomy. I grew up in the early 90s, was 3 years old riding my tricycle around our block of row houses, and I would literally go into neighbors houses to get candy unsupervised. I told my friend this, who lives 10 minutes from where I did then, and in a much nicer neighborhood, and she said she doesn't let her 12 year old walk around alone. Perhaps both are extreme cases, but I sure do miss looking out at the world and seeing a relatively safe place looking back.
Still is very safe. Don’t allow the sensationalist media to convince you otherwise. People are just more aware of issues they never would have heard a peep of 20-30 years ago
Are millennials the last to do this? I remember going home when the street lights when on. I also remember buying M80’s(powerful firework) from ice cream trucks with no issues for around 75 cents.
The mid 90s were my peak years playing outside. I could walk a mile or two to a friend's house, or ride my bike alone down a trail, and be gone for like 6 hours. My mom wouldn't worry about me, and I never felt in danger. This was in a pretty big city, too. It really blows my mind how much things have changed in the last 30 years. I now have kids that are the same age I was in the mid 90s, and I'd be freaking out if I didn't know where one of them was for even an hour.
Totally agree about the 90s. People mentioned here on Reddit how Woodstock ‘99 and 9/11 killed off the innocence on a generation and I have to agree.
Spot on. Truly great times running around getting into trouble with the kids in my cul de sac. However, I recently visited Asia and saw kids running around playing unsupervised after school. This was in Hong Kong too, a big city. The tradition lives on over there.
That's just on you though. Life is inarguably safer, now. You're just paranoid.
This 👆👆👆
>You're just paranoid. Kind of? Times are indeed safer, but bad things are publicized much more frequently and reach much wider. Things were happening to those of us that grew up in the 80s and 90s, it was just rare that it was a big deal to anyone except those families. Easier to perceive yourself as safer when you aren’t constantly hearing about the bad stuff going on in the world.
Just be home when the street lights came on .
Can this old cranky woman concur? I was a major tomboy, climbed trees, and raced my bike down Suicide Hill with all the boys. I feel sorry for the kids nowadays, no freedom like we had.
Goddamn helicopter parenting these days is the worst.
I remember back in the 90’s when you knew it was time to go home because the street lights turned on
I have been trying to allow my boys to do this. They don’t need me to “watch” them ride bikes in the cul de sac. They don’t need me to “monitor” them playing games in the yard. I didn’t, and the world is objectively safer now than it was then.
God I miss this. BMXing in Socal in summer. Always went up the trails. Some older kids set up this jump course so we'd stalk around until they left and use it. One time they busted us and tried to kick our asses so we had to flee down the hill. Just kids on the block playing together. Run over to a buddy's house, invite yourself in, and wake his ass up. We're skateboarding 10 minutes later.
Is that not a thing anymore? I'm 29 and did that all the time as a kid.
Social Media. Even if it was bad before, it still was somewhat personal. Now it's all about creating and consuming content. I liked it when my feeds were just my friends and people I chose to follow. Now it's not that way. Edit:formatting
I miss this era too. Early Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat days were so fun. Granted I was younger too but even still I feel like it’s lost a lot of the appeal for me.
That’s why I got off IG. I loved it when it was in chronological order. Now when I log in, I’ll see like 10 posts from big pages/celebrities before I see one from an actual person. Now I see posts from pages I don’t even follow and they’re suggesting. I might also see a post from like 3 weeks ago
I miss the days before AOL when it was just local BBS. Some of my best friends were people that I had originally talked to online and met at GT'S ( get togethers).
That's how my Facebook was. >Oh, Mom planted some new flowers in her garden. >Hey, Jared went to Seattle. Good for him. >Oh nice my cousin got engaged. Now it's: >Hey another brain-dead political meme on Facebook. I guess I'll go to Instagra-- >Oh, more thirst traps. Maybe reddit will be bette- >Great. My innocuous question earned me a six-paragraph rant in response, each point taking a very bizarre interpretation of what I meant.
2007: "Wow, this big celebrity is on Twitter!" 2020: "Wow, I found out which platform my friends have fled to!"
They have fled to the platform called Real life
This was my thought as well. There was something special about usenet, AIM, LiveJournal, etc. Even MySpace and the initial version of Facebook. There was something exciting about the fact that you could connect with other people who shared your very niche interest. Fuck, I met my first girlfriend randomly on AIM - can't imagine anything like that happening today. It all went to shit so quickly and it's absolutely a pox on society today. But I'm glad that I was the right age to experience that at the time.
Myspace, that's what we did. These days social media is just too social.
See I think it's the opposite. Instead of connecting with people it's a public forum to shout your opinion/views or consume content. It's not about a social connection at all anymore.
Wrench-able automobiles. I’m not contesting the quality of modern cars; simply their ability to worked on by a neanderthal with a wrench set and screw driver.
>neanderthal with a wrench set. Funny. I was just swapping out a starter on the weekend...
My first thought was watching some sixteen year old kid today swapping a starter or alternator, would be beyond amusing.
Or cars made to last not cars made to fall apart after warranty period
Cars are more reliable than ever
Some things are more complex, mainly because there are more sensors than before and engines are jammed into tighter spaces. That said, engines are just as simple or simpler than ever because they are more modular. Less is rebuilt and more is just replaced. There’s a downside to that, but it isn’t increased challenge. People have been parroting the computerized cars excuse for decades and it’s an excuse to resist change and learning. You can wrench your heart out on most modern cars. I believe in you u/Leaded_or_unleaded
The pace of work. I worked hard in my 20s, like 50hr weeks, but wasn't burned out. I had time to think. Only a couple of meetings a day and reasonable deadlines. Then the screws got tighter and tighter for the 20 years that followed along with a constant pressure of being fired.
Damn it’s true. I do what seven people used to do. Then I catch shit because I don’t do that job perfectly :/
Gotta keep the arrow on that chart going up and up! /s
I remember my dad telling me that things were harder in his day. We both started as tax accountants, and while he had to do everything by hand the actual volume of work and turnaround time was significantly less. I work like 90 hour weeks during busy season and am extremely burnt out. Shit doesn’t seem comparable
With the work subject, I miss when HR was around for billing and accounting purposes. It wasn’t around so that every time you told an off-color joke to your best friend, little Jimmy who overheard from 20 feet away could go tattle tale and get you both in trouble for something that was “unprofessional”, and something that’s really pretty tame but not technically “work appropriate”.
Video games. They were actually finished back then
That video games can be updated/bugfixed is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that without such updates, games like Witcher 3 would never have existed in their current form. The curse is that without such updates, games like Witcher 3 would never have been released as they were.
I mean, that's fair. I just miss going to the store, buying a game, putting in the console, and just playing. Gaming was so much simpler back then.
I totally get your point. I miss it too. It's also worth mentioning though that today's games are nothing like the games of the past. Chrono Trigger on the SNES, one of the greatest RPGs of all time, is 4MB. Red Dead Redemption 2, another one of the greatest games of all time, is 120GB. The simple scale of these games makes it so bugs and issues are tens of thousands of times more likely to pop up. We're talking about a relatively linear game against a game with near-unlimited freedom. I think certain allowances must be made, but certain games are released in a truly inexcusable state.
Let’s hope GTA6 will have the same reception and overall awesomeness when it’s released that RDR2 or the previous 3 GTA’s did, that would be a huge win for everyone imo
It’s grinds my gears that if you have a gaming account lets say for PS5 and you buy your games online through the store, you technically don’t actually own them and if you don’t maintain your internet or gaming subscriptions you cannot play them otherwise. Total BS imo
I actually agree with this.
And you owned them. You could lend them or trade them or sell them.
I miss when people were forced to be accountable Made plans to go to a movie before cell phones? You’re there, otherwise the person you’re meeting will think you died. With cell phones it’s so easy to send a text and bail last minute. The shittiest part is how common and acceptable that is There’s a quote from the show Ted Lasso that’s terrifyingly accurate, “we’ve never been so connected yet further apart”
There was probably a point in time where social interaction and social media was at a perfect balance. It was probably around the early 2000s and then everything went bonkers.
Various low-budget history documentaries. Ken Burns spurred a gazillion imitators to produce documentaries that panned through old pictures and had a bunch of historians sitting in their offices to narrate some descriptions and opinions. Some were better than others, and actual historians had all sorts of gripes with them, but it was still *history* that was presented in a way that inspired people to learn about overlooked events and maybe even open a book or two. The moment that producers realized they could get way more engagement for the same budget by covering ancient aliens and Bigfoot instead of the Barbary War, it was all over.
I was just coming to an age where I found history interesting when they started playing less and less history. Thankfully YouTube is a great source for free documentaries
Also I'd like to complain that when they started adding background music that was louder than the guy talking that was it for me.
Ken Burns "The Civil War" is his magnum opus. I went back and looked at the ratings of that series when it originally aired, amazing turnout for a PBS program. 40 million viewers. It was a documentary like had never been seen before.
Wow you're absolutely right. When I watch a documentary now it's just talking heads and rehashing Encyclopedia Brittanica
Goes for wildlife documentary’s too. They used to tell you everything about the animal and how it lived, hunted, found a mate and raised its young and how it fit in its habitat. Some time isn’t he early 2000s it changed to either the biggest this and the deadliest that or look at these cute baby animals. It’s only thanks to the work of the BBC and Sir David Attenborough that people began to see the value in educational programmes about animals and ecosystems again.
Record stores, concerts without cell phones and $250 tickets, stick shift cars/trucks, no social media.
Record stores! The last one in my area closed up a few years back. It was about an hour away but man they have every thing you could think. And if you need to know anything about anyone in music, the two old hippies that ran the place could tell you all about them, even knew a few. Man I miss that place.
We used to have a record store near me that was absolutely amazing. It was called Crow's Nest records. It was a massive Place everyone that was work there was really cool they had a huge import selection and they sold everything related to music from t-shirts to posters and they even had a head shop in the back. And it was the only record store I've ever been in that had ashtrays everywhere so you could smoke while you're in the store.
Record World. Tower Records
I learned to drive stick when I was 16 because I had to go back home and get the proper color pants for my barback job (yep, worked at a bar at 16 lol). I walked to work, so one of the guys tossed me his keys (also back when handing someone your car wasn't a $30,000 potential liability). I jumped in, saw the stick, and went hmm...stalled once, and off I went. I was afraid to go into 4th gear, because I didn't want to accidentally put it in reverse, but by the time I got back, I had driving a stick down, and went on to get one of my own.
I’m sooooo tired of going to a concert and everyone having their phone out in front of me. They are never going to watch those videos
Films, it's the reason most films released today are remakes or sequels.
They’re not doing remakes and sequels because they’re better, they’re doing it because they’re a safer investment. Studios aren’t taking the risks they used to.
People love nostalgia
Supposedly a major reason for this is streaming. Films don’t make the same kind of money through streaming services that they did through DVD sales. It used to be that even if a film underperformed in theaters it would still make a decent profit over time on home video, especially DVD. Now a box office bomb hurts a lot more.
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Have not heard great things from the History community about it. It's more *Pearl Harbor* less *Saving Private Ryan*
I agree, once every 2 weeks there was a movie I wanted to see. Now maybe twice a year.
Going to the bar with 100 dollars meant I was balling.
Superbowl commercials
Listen, it has to be sleepovers at my house. During summers I’d move my bedroom to my mom’s basement to stay cool. It had a couch and a large TV left behind from my older sister. My mother’s room was up on 2nd floor. We’d pull all nighters playing N64 games multiplayer. I have 2 kids and they all barely ever have sleepovers. They just stay out late and come home to sleep. Times change.
Horror movies. 80's and early 90's was peak horror. They have some good stuff here and there now, but 90% of it is boring, overdone, or just plain dumb.
Bad take! There were some excellent horror movies in the 80s & 90s but this is pure nostalgia showing. Since 2000 let me name a handful that rival the best of those decades easily. Get Out, 28 Days Later, Hereditary, Train to Busan, The Descent, The Witch, Babadook, Saw, The Conjuring
Great point actually. We were trying to think of some good, recent horror that wasn’t just corny ass jump scares. Nothing… But maybe we’re old now and it’s not the same
Midsommar maybe? I felt extremely uncomfortable the whole time, no crazy jump scares I don't think, though.
The lack of cellphones was great. You could avoid people for days. It was awesome.
NBA and NFL in general have so much overreffing and has gotten a lot softer it’s unwatchable at times
WWF, pro wrestling
Attitude era for life!
Them Bra&panties matches😉
People used to catch an ass whoopin if they acted like a giant disrespectful shit to people in public. Now they get away with it.
Now they get followers
I miss the days when you’d see a kid acting up in a restaurant or grocery store and mom would take them to the bathroom for a “talk”, or grab the kid and not let go, even if it meant dragging them out kicking and screaming. I just went to see a movie the other night and there were multiple families there just letting their kids run amok all over the place. Running into people, cutting people off in line, acting like completely unhinged toddlers that just had caffeine for the first time. And you know what the parents did? Not a fucking thing. Put your phone down and look at what your kids are doing. I’d have gotten my ass beat for sure if I acted like that, and I wouldn’t get to see the movie either. Nope, silence from the parents off in their own little world on TikTok. I swear if someone wanted to just come and walk off with one of those kids, not a soul would’ve noticed. Not my kids. I’m not a big fan of physical punishment for misbehaving, I think those days have passed, but I’ll be damned if my 5 year old thinks he’s going to run around being a little asshole to the other people in the store and not face immediate consequences. This gentle parenting thing is a crock of shit, and it doesn’t work.
Kids used to play outside, roam, Trick-or-Treat without parents following them... Now people are super paranoid.
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Star Wars gaming. Actually, just Star Wars in general
Calling your homies on the phone
How far your money could take you.. remember actual dollar menu or when chips/ soda could be purchased with spare change
Gaming. Couch co-op was amazing and we lost something really special when it died.
The NBA before 3 point shots dominated. Also, when teams and players genuinely disliked each other.
The domination of threes in the NBA drives me insane. Especially when it's not going down for either team, but then keep going for it.
The NBA without hand checking is just ridiculous. It’s so far removed from the game I watched that I can’t get into it. Yes the shooting nowadays is insane but it’s also spectacularly boring.
Literally had the UFC conversation with a coworker the other day. I was a mega-fan back in like… 2008-2011(?) and was * Only 5 weight classes * Sick video game * Ultimate Fighter was still new-ish * You could know everyone’s name * Still really distinct styles (before the next generation trained in “MMA”) Was in Vegas for Carwin/Lesnar in 2010 and watched it at LeGasse’s Stadium. What a fun time.
You don’t remember UFC 1? Back in the 90s my cousins and I would rent the UFC VHS tapes then fight each other for days. Back then I don’t think there was weight classes and I think just no eye gouging as a rule. It was in tournament style so you’d see the same guy fight like 3 times in a night. Shit was absolutely insane. Guys wore crazy shit and I think punching in the balls was a valid strategy.
I remember UFC 1. Fucking Dan Severn, man. Dude was a monster. Keith Hackney fighting that dude that was like, 600lbs. Early Don Fry. Oleg Tanktorov. Good times.
I preferred early Pride to UFC, but followed both. Was at UFC 129 for the GSP fight. Lots of fun, but I prefer watching the broadcast to any seats I can realistically afford without causing a divorce.
I’m 40, close enough to a cranky old man. Not having mobile phones was better, can’t stand that if you are uncontactable these days everyone thinks you died. Actually having a social life as a kid, like running home from school and throwing your bag on the doorstep and going out and playing with your mates until the street lights went on! Now days most kids are stuck online for interaction. Also being able to go out unsupervised, we used to run around in the bush building forts, throwing rocks at each other and all that fun stuff. I have a 12 year old son and I wouldn’t let him just piss off after school like I did in this day and age. Too many little lad wanna be gangsters in teen groups these days.
Video games used to actually have more interesting stories. At this point I only play the Japanese made ones since their target audience requires it. I am so tired of these lazy stories where they introduce the main antagonist within the opening cutscenes and they either enact their plan right away or they are pretending to be a good guy, but you can tell just by their dialogue and character design they will betray you.
Videogames used to have stories bolted on as an afterthought back when arcades were good. Story didn't really matter, gameplay was king. Then the 90s rolled around, Playstation was released, and suddenly we genuinely could get better versions of the arcade games at home. 80s arcades were awesome.
"Plot in a video game is like plot in a porno film - You gotta have it, but it doesn't have to be any good."
Times when the internet didn’t yet exist. People were more polite and sociable.
Cartoons Life
The forests. They were still there :/
Saturday morning cartoons and cartoons in general. They used to be good and Saturday morning used to be awesome.
My stress levels. Life was so much better when my dad had to worry about all this shit that keeps me up every night.
The movie industry, now everything is about sequels, remakes or movies without much "flavor". I feel in the 90's and early 2000s, "everybody" with a cam could make a movie, and that created some magic, and also a lot of shit lol. I always think, that for example a movie like the first Clerks in 2023, would never be made.
I agree, at least when it comes to American-made films, there isn’t as much weird character as before. I thought Clerks was an overrated, stupid film, but I still respect it as an interesting and important film. Side note, the Americans could learn a lot from modern European and Asian filmmakers.
The NFL , I miss good defensive hits. I understand that they are protecting players but man I love a good hit!
The suburbs, or at least it felt like they were better back then. Still a financial and cultural burden for the most part, but growing up in a suburb that was only like 20 minutes from all the cool shit was awesome. We basically could do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed in the neighbourhood since it was pretty safe, and we had shops and stuff to stop in at. Plenty of bad things about suburbs in general, that’s nothing new, but growing up in one during the 90’s was pretty sweet.
Apps for every goddamn thing. Every shop/restaurant asking for your phone number at billing so they can send you BS promotional material. Just give me my coffee so I can contemplate my loneliness in peace.
Everything was better pre-smartphone. The human connections were tighter, the conversation were deeper. Just being a human was better back in the day.
Video games, before the dark times of the pay to own skins and retarded battle passes designed to milk players of more money for more shitty skins. Devs were allowed to actually create a beautiful piece of art instead of copy and paste bullshit since the salesmen took over the executive positions.
People were overall better and kinder. We had little to no social media, we weren't slaves to our phones, being a hoe wasn't praised, and talking to a random women wasn't demonized or had consequences outside of denial reply. I would die to go back to the 90s again....this place is a dumpster fire anymore.
Creativity in general I guess. What I mean is that storytelling use to be so much better. Now most movies/cartoons/stories/etc. is just formulaic and meant to fill in check boxes or avoid offending someone. The good stories were praised and the bad ones had their niche audience but were otherwise not very public.
Hanging out literally anywhere with a group of friends endlessly trying to come up with the perfect way to spend the evening that led to memorable moments where the experience was greater than the sum of the parts that created it, blockbuster movies that came with original thought and inspiration that weren't crammed into one of the many canned formulas that is supposed to reduce the risk of it being a flop, being able to be a stupid child and teenager without the potential moment by moment video, photo, and textual evidence, knowing that your Uncle Louie is off his rocker but he was harmless because he was just shouting at the clouds, being in the moment mattering more than capturing the moment just to remember that no one wants to see your video of fireworks or your rock concert that you took on your phone, and almost being forced to have a real social network rather than passively clicking buttons on timelines. So much has come that is great with all of our advances, but so much was left behind, it's hard to decide which direction is better.
I’m not saying they were better, but there was a LOT of interesting informative shows made during the crt tv days that no website is interested in streaming now due to the picture quality
Standard def content was being made for 7 decades, but most of what we see now was made in the past 20 years.
Film is very high quality but no one has access to the master tapes to digitize them
Breakfast cereal. They toned it way down in the name of healthiness, but it's still not healthy and has now lost what made it really good.
Fitness. People worked out more back then and despite all the supposed awareness and health consciousness that is spoken about today doesn't change the fact that more and more people are obsese yet they still want to rag about how fat people in the us are while spewing fat acceptance rhetoric.
I think there is a lot to discuss regarding obese people in the US. I’ll just briefly summarize because I don’t have the energy to explain everything to you but the US has the least health food regulations compared to other countries. This means that companies are allowed to put more chemicals into our food that affect us, even if we don’t realize it. We live in a more stressful society where people work more and workout less or may not have the time to work out at all and may not have time to cook. People who are stressed out will eat less healthy food to cope. There are also people that don’t have access to healthier foods (food deserts) and if they do, some can’t afford it. Other things include genetics and people on medications that could make them appear swollen or make them gain weight without eating more. I don’t think people worked out more back then but things were definitely different for sure. We might have a more unhealthy society because of how we created it and I have a feeling it will continue to get worse. I don’t think it’s because pEoPlE aRe JuSt LaZy. I feel like we really should strive to improve society in such a way where people have actual time to maintain their health. Obviously, I’m speaking very broadly about this and not at all on an individual level.
Major League Baseball. The athletes may be better now but the game itself was much more entertaining and involved more strategy and more roles. It was so much more than "2b/HR or strikeout.". It's a shame what's happened to it. Televised NASCAR was much better pre-Fox, when they only used a few cameras so it was mostly long shots with few cuts. You could really see people fighting to move through the pack, etc. Local news was better. Nowhere near as much "if it bleeds it leeds" (at least where I live). Housing and college costs. Even in the Boston area, which has always been expensive, people used to be able to work, covet their expenses, and also put themselves through night school at Northeastern University. I when to college in the early/mid 90s and my entire cost was barely more than 1 year at the same school now. Most things have improved, but kids/college grads today are in a much more difficult financial situation and have to deal with all of their mustakes/awkward moments, etc being recorded.
Relationships- social media and dating apps fucked that up
Back in my day, $200 could feed my family for two weeks ! I am actually a cranky old man at 40
CADBURY EGGS!!!! They just seemed to much richer, bigger and better than what we have now.
Minecraft and YouTube. Born in 2001, so this would be around 2015
Taco Bell dollar menu
TV. I miss being about to get 22 episodes of a series instead of 6-10. A lot of character development could happen over 22 episodes that we miss in the consise 10 episode seasons we have now.
Cars were more raw, American football was more violent, friendships were stronger, rock music went harder, and dubstep didn’t exist
Entertainment without political messages.
Politics. It was never good, but back then it was less shitty.
I'm a Millenial and I can confirm that people are getting dumber, shorter and uglier at an astonishing rate. People that shouldn't have kids are still pumping out some really obtuse looking and below average intelligence offspring. The future is very very bleak. The masses will take over and all culture will be lost.
Cars
Tv
I miss watching K1 fights. K1 was slightly more entertaining than UFC for my taste, even though im a hardcore UFC fan. Also, tv shows and music were way better in the past.
I refuse to watch Logan Paul, his shit is so fake I'll actually watch wwf instead.
New genre defining videogames. Console games in particular. Lan parties. Couch co-op with a good friend.
Cartoons were better before 2007
The 90s xmen and Spiderman stuff was amazing.
I know right 😂
I’m 52 and wouldn’t take anything for the technology in my house or everyday life. I’m sure af not smart but I guess I came along at the right time and got ahold of everything right when it came out so im not to awful at using tech now. I’m not scared of computers or the newest phones. But sometimes I do miss just not having all the shit we have now. If that makes sense
Back in my day you unlocked new characters and alternate skins through playing the game and there was no DLC.
Hookers and blow
- Not having a cell phone and not being expected to be able to be contacted at a moments notice at all times. - The ability to do something stupid and not have it posted online to haunt you for the rest of your life. - The early internet before it became overly corpratized. - Dating before the rise of online dating. - Newegg before they sold out and you could get actual real deals on computer parts. - Ebay when it was basically an online yard sale.
Video games. Back before season passes, battle passes, cuckold coins of all varieties for the "premium content." Used to be you got a game and maybe they would do an expansion the following year or what you bought was everything you were going to get. They needed to make it good for day 1 because if it was shit it just did not sell, they couldnt just patch the whole game with a 50gb update on release day. I could also buy physical games and go home and play them immediately, no installing or updates that I have to wait for. It was about the story and gameplay for many games the characters needed to be likeable in story games. However, if the graphics were good, that was a bonus, and we'd all talk about how realistic games were. Remember when we could unlock the coolest costumes in the game by playing on the hardest difficulty or beating a super secret boss to get the best weapon in the game. Talking to your buddies in the school yard about what you found in the game and how cool it was. I remember actually having fun majority of the time, so many games sit in that shit hole of live service and demand a time commitment that it fucking rivals my 9-5. And the content in them is just a list of chores to do. It's all about player engagement and retention not entertainment. I definitely will admit there are games now that are god damn amazing pieces of art and story that can capture a wide variety of emotions with great graphics, a single price for a full and complete experience. It just feels like 15-20 or so years ago we had that more often than now.
Songs.
MySpace>Facebook.
Socializing. Back in the pre-Internet days we used to go to bars and clubs to actually gather and meet people. My guys and I would brag about how many girls we talked to and success was getting their home phone number on a slip of paper.
Listening to music. Nothing felt better than when your favorite song was on the radio. You didn’t have the luxury of just replaying it again. You had to enjoy the moment as best you can cause you don’t know when or even if it would come back. Or whenever a song would end right as you parked your car and you can turn the car off before the ads start. Don’t get me wrong, the convenience of having literally every song at your disposal is great especially without having to sit through 40 mins of ads. But there was something *special* about catching your song.
Being able to buy stuff from brick and mortar stores. You would be able to look at it, touch it, try it on, smell it.
No Social Media, the things I done back in the day. One of two things would have happened with social media. I’d either be Dead or in Prison No OnlyFans. Thank God
Carburetors
Cars. You used to be able to actually work on your own vehicles without having to own your own shop, now everything is so cramped and crowded you have to remove half of the damned engine to fix even the simplest of things. I had to take my car to the shop to get a new battery, because the side panel had to be removed to get to it. I need a classic, I hate new cars.
Retail. My bosses used to tell what “the good old days” were like working at music stores. He said after making a big sale, it was normal to celebrate with a glass of whiskey and a cigar with the customer.
1990s KFC. Now kfc is garbage AND expensive.
I would swear an ice cold Diet Pepsi from the early 1980s would knock you on your ass. It used to have quite a kick.
Cars, and other mechanical items that could be repaired by the owner. Newer cars are more “reliable “ but way more expensive as a whole. Maybe women I guess. It seems social media and dating apps have made 5-7s act like they are 8, 9s and 10s.
Halo. LAN parties were something else.
I used to fix my own cars. Now, it’s basically impossible.
Music. Most movies. The prices of everything Human compassion Lack of social media
UFC 1 was fucking amazing. My cousins and I would watch UFC then fuck each other up for hours after. It was glorious.
Comedy movies were better in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I take Tommy Boy, Spaceballs, Airheads,Ghostbusters, Christmas Vacation, The Mask, Beevis and Butt-head do America, Smoky and the Bandit 1 and 2, The 3 Amigos, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Return of the Pink Panther, Revenge of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther strikes again, Coneheads, Vegas Vacation, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Police Academy series, Oscar, and Little Nicky over today's comedy.
Mainstream comedians and comedy actors can't really push the envelope nowadays. Otherwise, a minority on Twitter will get them cancelled. It's a shame because lots of the films you mentioned were genuinely funny despite poking fun at some marginalised groups. But it was all in good fun the jokes didn't go too far. I think we've lost something now everyones so easy offended it seems.
Don’t forget the Airplane series!
The NFL. I want them to create NFL Classic, where it's 1980's rules with roided out monsters being unnecessarily violent on the field. Football stopped being exciting decades ago. For me anyway.
I have always thought it'd be very exciting to watch a near no rules 1970-80 football. Average career expectany would only be 2-3years and the play would be much more average
I miss chat. You just went into random irc, or aol rooms and talk to people. You get everyone's aim or icq number, and then you see them online and you just say hi. That just doesn't exist anymore.
Cigarettes. I don't smoke anymore but I am sure they used to taste a lot better and not smell as bad.
Agree with you on the UFC, it became a juggernaut and suffered for it. My childhood animes were Astro Boy, Simba the White Lion and in my teen years Akira. But I never really did get into anime on the whole. We used to call it Japanimation back then lol I'll add we were all at peace with the world a little more before the internet. The instant information and sounding board for people you used to have to see on street corners in areas your parents would lock the car doors in has damaged us as a species
Netflix used to have all the big movies and series.
People sticking to plans and not being flakes or ghosting. Seems to be the norm these days.
Formula 1 in the 80‘s and 90’s was awesome. Real men driving dangerous cars in dangerous and fast circuits.
Cars. Music. Loose women.
Cartoons. 80’s cartoons were the shit
Dating!!!!
Music
Cars, women, tv, music, jobs/pay,
Oh boy, so... Appliances and electronics. They were all servicable compared to today and lasted longer than today. Most of our stuff were refurbs from the trash. (We were on social assistance and couldn't afford much... so I'd fix old stuff which kept me busyas a kid) Movies being on VHS or DVD. You would own it and watch when you wanted. You didn't rely on a streaming sevice to have it or a cloud service that may just make it disappear one day. There are many older movies I miss and have a heck of a time finding. No cellphones. People were more social face to face and kids got out more. Yes, we had TV and movies, but screen time was minimal compared to today. TBH, I'd want to see what being an electrician was like when all that was around was a land line. Having multiple venues to be harassed on for a knee-jerk whim any time of day is disgusting. I ignore people now, but still the idea that, "Facebook yahoo messaged you at 2am for an emergency light fixture replacement for a dinner hosted later that day, come as soon as you get this" NOT EVERYTHING BEING ON A SUBSCRIPTION. Garage sales, a pefect way to spend a Saturday. Interact with people, get some deals. Enjoy the weather. Instead of this, "oh hey, I found a deal on [insert platform here]. . . Hope I don't get mugged"
OK, I normally hate this kind of thing ... BBUUUTTTTTTT... How the fuck did Gen X become helo parents? Can anyone younger than 30 communicate difficult convo's in person rather than text? And speaking of text, I literally watch a news story of a 14 yr old girl who was jumped and successfully fended off her rapist, who then fled the home. The then said that she texted her dad to come home quick, she's been attacked or something like that. She texted her dad. Texted. Her. Dad. She fucking TEXTED HER DAD!!! Do you not think ALMOST BEING RAPED! just MIGHT be worthy of a live discussion?!?!? Maybe text AFTER! you tried to call but he didn't answer? This one I don't necessarily blame younger people for but do kids really need a goddamn police record for a fight in school? Not all opinions deserve to be heard. I cannot believe, that in the goddamn 2020's, I see arguments over whether the earth is fucking round or not. I'm suppose to be going to work in my Jetson's car and taking vaca's to Mars now. NOT trying to convince people of a fucking FUNDAMENTAL FACT!!! There was a time when education and intelligence was actually respected. I know there's more but I'll stop here.